Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Join the fight

  • Published
  • By Shari Lopatin
  • TriWest Healthcare Alliance
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  In 2006, more than 110 women died every day from one disease: breast cancer.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, these are the facts. However, here's the kicker:

That death rate is an improvement.

The Susan G. Komen Web site states that in the past 35 years, the death rate from breast cancer in white and Hispanic women has declined. Unfortunately, the rate for black women has increased slightly. As screening programs have become more popular, more cases of breast cancer are caught early, making them more treatable.

That screening boils down to one word: mammogram.

Get Screened and Join the Fight

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time when women and their families come together and bring awareness to this deadly disease. As part of that mission, women can take action to lower the breast cancer death rate even more, by getting their mammograms.

A woman who saves her life is doing it for others besides herself -- her husband, her children and maybe even her parents. No one wants to bury their mom or child because of breast cancer.

According to the CDC, mammograms, or x-rays of the breasts, are the best method to detect breast cancer early, when it's easiest to treat. For women 40 years or older, the CDC recommends having a mammogram every one to two years.

Women who are TRICARE beneficiaries can receive their mammograms at no cost. TRICARE covers one mammogram every 12 months for women older than 39. If a woman is considered high-risk for breast cancer, she can begin receiving mammograms at 35 years old.

So this October, don't just wear the shirts or sport the pink ribbons. Take action. Get a mammogram. And help slow the number of women that breast cancer claims each day.

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